Recent assessments indicate widespread explosive ordnance contamination in North...
Recent assessments indicate widespread explosive ordnance contamination in Northern Ethiopia, especially in areas that have seen intense fighting. While the full extent and impact of the contamination is yet to be established, the fighting is believed to have contaminated vast swathes of land with explosive remnants of war (ERW). Moreover, explosive remnants of war (ERW) continue affecting the life of civilians, including several children, in recent months. ERW is spread across residential areas and internally displaced persons sites, in communal locations and amongst rubble, posing an immediate risk to life, the delivery of humanitarian aid, inhibiting safe movement, and preventing access to basic services.
The project aims to reduce the immediate and long-term impact of explosive ordnance on civilians and humanitarian operations in northern Ethiopia through coordination and explosive ordnance risk education. As lead of the mine action area of responsibility, ensuring MA contributes to improving the safety of at-risk communities by establishing a humanitarian mine action sector, capable of effectively delivering on the objectives of the Humanitarian Response Plan. The Mine Action Response Programme defines and implements specific activities in accordance with emerging humanitarian needs and through needs-based prioritization, involving an analysis of the explosive ordnance threat, IDPs movement, survey data, and the wider humanitarian response.